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Keys to History

With the invention of the light bulb, interiors are brightly lit. As Thomas Edison writes in 1880, "The Electric Light is a success, take my word for it." The preceding October, Edison had used carbonized sewing cotton mounted on an electrode in a vacuum to produce a light source that becomes white hot without overheating. Bamboo fibre gives the tipped bulb a thousand-hour life. Electricity slowly begins to rival gas lighting in urban homes by the 1890s, becoming more popular by 1910-20.

Electrical lighting tends to pull household members away from the centre of the room. As material culture expert Thomas J. Schlereth points out, "Central heating and electrical lighting tended to disperse . . . family circles. Centrifugal privacy replaced centripetal intimacy." The centre table with its kerosene lamp is no longer the focus of family gatherings.